Red hot fireball moon
Hangin' real low,
Just over the ridge
Down home
Wrapped all round
By a deep purple sky.
Stories, Old Ragged Verse, Letters to and from mountain cousins by Storyteller and Appalachian Humorist Stephen Hollen. Enjoy the humor and bittersweet memories of Eastern Kentucky and a place where the mist crawls down the mountainside ''like molasses on a cold plate''
Thursday, February 01, 2007
Tuesday, January 30, 2007
Cruel Beast
Winter has been cruel to the woods in the hills. She has teased for so long, offering false glimpses of spring to trees that do not suspect her deception. Warm weather and rain to wash away the dry leaves of fall were just trickery to those tall residents of the hills and hollers of home.
Now she does the inevitable, she rushes in the cold, the snow and throws it at all who were fooled by the false spring. She hurls ice and piles snow upon rock and root in mockery of the trust that the mountains placed in the signs of spring. She mocks and she destroys, as is her wont. She is a beast, hideous and cruel in nature.
Don't be fooled by the seemingly gentle vistas of white snow blanketing the meadows. It is like a python, wrapping around and smothering. Winter is a cruel beast. She paces around through the mighty oak, hickory and maples, looking for ways to hurt and harm, nipping off buds of trees that took the warm weather to heart.
Winter is a cruel beast, there is no real warmth in her.
Now she does the inevitable, she rushes in the cold, the snow and throws it at all who were fooled by the false spring. She hurls ice and piles snow upon rock and root in mockery of the trust that the mountains placed in the signs of spring. She mocks and she destroys, as is her wont. She is a beast, hideous and cruel in nature.
Don't be fooled by the seemingly gentle vistas of white snow blanketing the meadows. It is like a python, wrapping around and smothering. Winter is a cruel beast. She paces around through the mighty oak, hickory and maples, looking for ways to hurt and harm, nipping off buds of trees that took the warm weather to heart.
Winter is a cruel beast, there is no real warmth in her.
Wednesday, January 17, 2007
Cold Night
Cold night has come
Deep purple
Stars thrown out
All over the sky.
Not chilly
But bone cold
Standin' the hair
Up on the neck cold
Like a wild animal tryin'
To bush out his coat
Cold.
Deep purple
Stars thrown out
All over the sky.
Not chilly
But bone cold
Standin' the hair
Up on the neck cold
Like a wild animal tryin'
To bush out his coat
Cold.
Monday, January 15, 2007
Washtub Concert
The winter rain
Falls quiet
On a day
That is too warm
For snow.
In the place
Winter white
There is mud
Brown and dull
Dead leaves
Sodden mud
Everywhere
Denigrates
The sterile beauty
Of winter.
Yet under
My porch
Drops of water
Fall through
Cracks
Planks
And play
A merry
Percussion
On metal
Washtubs
Laid upside down.
Plink dink
Plink plunk.
Falls quiet
On a day
That is too warm
For snow.
In the place
Winter white
There is mud
Brown and dull
Dead leaves
Sodden mud
Everywhere
Denigrates
The sterile beauty
Of winter.
Yet under
My porch
Drops of water
Fall through
Cracks
Planks
And play
A merry
Percussion
On metal
Washtubs
Laid upside down.
Plink dink
Plink plunk.
Sunday, January 07, 2007
Gossamer Laser
A single strand
Of spider web
Pulled tight
Between two trees
Holding them in place.
Like a gossamer laser
It shines
Glistens
As it twirls
And is hit
By glancing
Sun rays.
Of spider web
Pulled tight
Between two trees
Holding them in place.
Like a gossamer laser
It shines
Glistens
As it twirls
And is hit
By glancing
Sun rays.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)